SpaceX's Dragon capsule successfully made it to the International Space Station (ISS) early this morning, where it will unload nearly 1,000 pounds of cargo for the next few weeks.

The unmanned Dragon capsule set off toward the ISS Sunday night, and arrived at the orbiting station early Wednesday morning. Astronauts on the ISS used a robot arm to securely latch the Dragon to the space station about 250 miles above the Pacific, just west of Baja California.

The Dragon's hatch will be opened tomorrow, where astronauts will begin unloading the cargo inside. Right now, Dragon contains 882 pounds of scientific experiments, groceries, clothes and other items. The capsule will return to Earth with twice as much cargo.

This week's venture to the ISS marks Dragon's second journey to the ISS. It originally made a test flight back in May of this year, but this particular trip marks the first official cargo run as part of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. This contract locks SpaceX in to 12 total cargo runs to the ISS through 2015.

While today's linkup at the ISS was a successful one, the entire trip wasn't perfect. A prototype communications satellite aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket (which launched Dragon to the ISS) was sent into the wrong orbit due to one of the Falcon 9s' Merlin engines shutting down early during Sunday night's launch. Orbcomm, the company that owns the prototype OG2 satellite, said it was "deposited into a lower-than-intended orbit." The company is now analyzing whether the satellite can use its onboard propulsion system to adjust its orbit.

Aside from that malfunction, all went well for the SpaceX mission. Dragon is due to return to Earth near the end of October, after all cargo is unloaded and reloaded.

SpaceX, a private space transport company from California, stepped in as America's new form of transportation to the ISS after NASA retired its space shuttle fleet throughout 2011. This retirement left American astronauts with no way to get to the ISS, except onboard a Russian Soyuz rocket -- which has become pretty pricey.

It was clear that the U.S. needed a new way to send supplies to and from the ISS, and SpaceX was happy to provide its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket.

Dragon is set to make its next cargo run for the NASA contact in January 2013.

SpaceX is also working on a Dragon capsule that can be manned by astronauts, and hopes to send the first manned Dragon to the ISS between 2015 and 2017.

Boeing actually got a COTS contract and got more money in the latest round from NASA. But, they are planning on using the Delta V rocket. Which is insanity to me, this is old, expensive technology. I don't know why NASA feels like throwing away taxpayer money on something that won't compete on price with a system that is up and working.

quote: I don't know why NASA feels like throwing away taxpayer money on something that won't compete on price with a system that is up and working.

Probably politics. Not left vs right politics, but probably some murky relationship going on there, some form of kick-back. You're right though, that's ridiculous, COTS exists pretty much for everyone BUT Boeing and Lockheed.

Where did you get that? The CST-100 is being designed to be compatible with several launch vehicles, including the Delta IV, Atlas V, and Falcon 9. Initial flight tests will use the Atlas V. The Atlas V is not that old. It's maiden flight was in 2002.

We are talking about manned flight. From an engineering perspective, it just is too risky to use the Falcon 9 at this point. It's maiden launch was in 2010. It has only had 3 successful launches and one partial success (early engine shutoff). The Atlas V has 32 successful launches and one partial success (early engine shutoff). Which would you choose if people's lives were depending on you? It is just good engineering to start with the one that has the best launch record.